A mother has been ordered to pay £4,800 compensation for a doorstep assault which left a woman with a permanent facial scar.
Katie Stephens attacked her victim after the pair had taken part in a swap of their respective local authority properties. The defendant's barrister told Swansea Crown Court that the assault was out of character for his client, and he said she "deeply regrets" what had been a "serious error of judgement" on her part.
Attack after house swap dispute
Craig Jones, prosecuting, told the court that Stephens and the complainant had known each other for some four months after completing a local authority house swap. He said following the move the defendant failed to collect items from her old house and "expected the complainant to deliver them".
The court heard that on January 14 this year the complainant used a van to take Stephens' possessions to her home in Waunarlwydd and asked her to pay to cover the cost of the vehicle. A confrontation ensued on the defendant's doorstep before the complainant saw "something silver" in Stephens' hand and was struck to the face.
Victim needed stitches
The defendant then began "shouting and swearing" at the visitor who was by now bleeding heavily from a wound to her forehead. The court heard the victim managed to flee the scene and later went to hospital where she needed both deep and superficial stitches to a 4cm-long wound.
Meanwhile 37-year-old Stephens had been arrested, and in her interview she denied attacking the complainant and said the caller had been the aggressor. In an impact statement, the victim said she had been left suffering with anxiety and flashbacks, and with a permanent scar on her forehead.
Sentencing
Katie Stephens - also known as Katie Warlow - of Caergynydd Road, Waunarlwydd, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous harm when she appeared in the dock for sentencing. She has no previous convictions.
Stephen Thomas, for Stephens, said the behaviour the court had heard about was "completely out of character" for his client, and he said references before the court "speak to a very different person". He said Stephens had longstanding obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety, and he said the mum "deeply regrets" what had been a "serious error of judgement" on her part.
With a discount for her guilty plea Stephens was sentenced to 21 months in prison suspended for 21 months, and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation programme and a mental health treatment requirement. The defendant was also ordered to pay her victim £4,800 in compensation, and was made subject to a five-year restraining order banning her from contacting the complainant.
